


Write On Me

by Laratjuhh



Category: One Direction (Band), Shawn Mendes (Musician), niall horan - Fandom
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, Singer Niall, Singer-Songwriter Shawn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-21 07:17:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17638268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laratjuhh/pseuds/Laratjuhh
Summary: Shawn is a singer-songwriter who has been writing songs for and with Niall Horan. He develops a crush, but he has no idea what Niall even thinks of him.





	1. Coming out

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, this will be a short-chaptered fic. I hope that enables me to write it quickly.

Shawn has his pencil in his mouth and a deep frown on his face. This song he’s working on is almost finished, but he just can’t seem to get the last few details right. He strums another chord on his guitar, thinking about what he wants people to feel when they listen to it. What _he_ wants to feel when Niall sings it. 

Shawn sighs. He wishes this wasn’t so hard, and if this was any other song he would call Niall and ask him to work on the details with him, but he really wants to surprise him with this one. He wants it to be special, since he can’t say what he feels.

Shawn has been a singer-songwriter professionally for just over three years now, and the last six months he has been working with world-wide pop star Niall Horan. He has been having a blast with him, since Niall really _loves_ to make music and is really funny as well. They clicked from the first moment they met. But now, it seems, Shawn has a little problem. He’s gone and fallen for Niall in the worst way and he loves and dreads working with him equal amounts. 

This song in particular is special to him, since it conveys everything he can’t seem to get out of his mouth whenever he and Niall are together. It tells the tale of an unspoken love, pining, and constantly fearing the other will pick up on your vibe and reject you. Basically, everything Shawn feels for Niall; love, desperation and endless nerves.

He isn’t sure when it happened, exactly. Niall just got to him. Problem is, he isn’t even sure Niall is into guys, let alone him. Gosh, he wishes he could make Niall blush like he’s seen in some videos of him meeting his idols, but he is rambunctious and loud around him instead.

Just then Shawn’s phone rings. ‘ _Speak of the devil,_ ’ he thinks when he sees who it is. His heart races and he contemplates how to answer for a bit until he accidentally picks up. Panicking, he almost drops his phone and he feels embarrassed when he hears Niall laugh. Bringing up the phone to his ear, he breathes out: “Sorry, sorry. Clumsy.”

Niall laughs louder. “Hi Shawnie! You okay?”

“Yeah, just almost dropped my phone. What’s up?”

He tries to sound casual, but he knows there is a slight tremor in his voice that won’t go unnoticed, since Niall seems to pick up on everything lately. And sure enough...

“You don’t sound okay. Didn’t spook ya did I? Bad conscience?”

Shawn huffs out a laugh. “You’re just… I was writing. Was all concentrated. Now I’m not.”

“Oh well what’s that, writing without me,” Niall says jokingly. “Thought we were partners!”

Shawn swallows and tries not to think about him and Niall as ‘partners’. “’Course we are! What did you call me for?”

“Well,” Niall says, clearly getting down to business as his voice becomes all serious. “I was thinking of coming by tomorrow to write, actually. I just had this song idea and I would love to write it together with you. Do you have time?”

Shawn tries to keep the smile out of his voice when he answers. “Yeah, sure! Come over in the morning so we have the whole day!” 

Okay, so maybe he didn’t succeed. That was obviously happy _and_ eager.

Niall chuckles. “Alright babe, see you tomorrow!” 

Shawn tries not to choke. Niall never calls him babe. “Tomorrow,” he almost whispers by way of greeting before hanging up. 

Why does Niall get to him so much? Why can’t he properly function whenever Niall is near or involved in any way? He wishes he could just be confident around him and seduce him. That would be ace. As it is, however, he chokes and stumbles and Niall is perpetually amused by him. At least he makes him laugh. Niall just makes him feel so very _young_.

–

The next day, Shawn is up early, jittery from the nerves but also looking forward to seeing Niall again. He walks around his house aimlessly before finally that bell rings and _Niall is here_.

He takes one deep breath and goes to open the door. He can’t help the ridiculously wide smile he feels spread on his face, and goes straight in for a hug. “Hi,” he says into Niall’s neck. Niall chuckles and lets himself be dragged inside. 

“Hello weirdo, did ya miss me?”

Bashfully, Shawn takes a step back and watches him. Niall's scruff looks _good_ , and he tries not to think about all the places he would like to feel it on his skin.

“Did not,” he tries, but Niall scoffs and laughs again. 

“Yeah, you did,” he accuses. Shawn doesn’t try to deny it again.

“Want some coffee?”

“Always.”

Shawn goes to make them coffee and tries to calm his heart down. When he comes back to the living room and sees Niall sit on his sofa, he stops for a moment. Niall looks really soft, harmless. He just wants to curl up to him. He puts down the coffee and sits down on the other end of the sofa, though. 

“So what did you have in mind?”

Niall blushes. That’s new.

“I was just thinking the other day and playing around with some lyrics but I couldn’t find the right chords so I thought I should maybe call you since you always know what to do so here I am,” he breathes out.

“What were you thinking about?”

“Just… things.”

“Niall. Tell me. You know we can’t write properly if you don’t tell me what you feel. We’ve been over this.”

Niall looks down to his lap. “I know. It’s just new. I… I think I like someone.” 

Shawn’s heart drops but he tries not to let it show. He swallows and asks: “Why is that new? Have you never liked anyone before?”

Now Niall scoffs. “’Course I have, twat!”

“Then what’s new?”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?”

“Promise, Ni. What is it?”

“It’s a guy. It’s… yeah. That.”

Niall carefully looks up at him and now Shawn can’t help but smile so wide his face might split in two. _He likes guys! He likes guys!_

“Now that I can work with,” he grins.

“I thought so,” Niall laughs. It was no secret, not to his friends and family, anyway, that Shawn was very gay.

“Glad you came out to me mate. Let’s get to work.”

At first, Shawn is still apprehensive of what he does and says, but when they have been writing for half an hour he relaxes and lets himself be comfortable. He still doesn’t know who it is Niall is into as he won’t tell him, but at least now he knows there is a _possibility_.


	2. Friction

Shawn has not been sleeping well. It’s been a week since Niall called him to write together, and he’s coming over again today. Shawn doesn’t know what to expect. Last time he ended up with a headache from trying to restrain himself. He wanted to make a move _so_ bad, he had to sit on his hands for a bit. He’s also sure Niall caught him looking at his lips at least once. Neither of them ever mentioned it, though.

So, today, Shawn is taking precautions. When Niall sits down on his sofa, Shawn sits in a chair, only to realise his mistake when his guitar clashes with the armrests. Niall giggles at him and watches him turn around uncomfortably in the chair, give up, and get a stool to sit on. 

“You know, there’s some room over here,” he teases.

Shawn smiles up at him shyly, but doesn’t reply. Niall’s grin fades a little.

“What’s up, Shawnie? You’re being weirder than ever.”

“Nothing, just...” he trails off, not sure what kind of bullshit excuse Niall will actually believe. He ends up with a shrug.

That was maybe not the cleverest move, because now Niall is standing up and walking over to him, dragging him off the stool and onto the sofa to sit with him.

“Stop being weird, we’re friends,” Niall says decisively.

Now it’s Shawn’s turn to laugh. He is looking Niall directly in the eyes, and they are full of concern at the moment. He doesn’t want Niall to worry. 

“I’m okay, I promise. Just awkward.”

Then, without warning, Niall sets his own guitar away, then Shawn’s, and hugs him tight.

“Wha… What was that for?” Shawn asks when he is released a few moments later.

Niall shrugs. “Dunno. You looked like ya needed one.”

Shawn, still a little in shock, barely registers that his eyes start to wander, down to Niall’s lips once again. When he realises it, he quickly looks back up, only to find Niall watching him curiously, maybe a little amused. And to make matters worse…

“What were you trying to find there?” Niall asks, expectation clear in his voice.

Shawn feels the blood rush to his cheeks and stutters. “I… No… It’s just… Nothing!” 

Niall now cackles out loud and grabs his guitar again. “Don’t worry, mate. Just messin’ with ya!”

They finally start working on Niall’s new song, but Shawn can’t shake the feeling that Niall knows something is up. Throughout the day, Niall tries a few more times to mess with him, most notably the time he sits down at the piano and urges Shawn to sit on the bench next to him, only to tell him “Your face is really pretty, did you know that?” He says it without a hint of humour in his voice, until Shawn looks away all flustered and closes his eyes for a second to catch his breath. Only then does Niall laugh.

So is that how it is, then? Niall is just deliberately messing with him now? Why?

“Niall?”

“Yeah, babe?”

That’s the second time he’s called him ‘babe’ now in just over a week. Shawn can’t say he minds. He does mind the torture, however.

“Could you stop, like, teasing me please?”

Niall cocks his head to the side coyly. “Dunno what ya mean.”

“The… flirting? I guess? I don’t know what it is exactly.”

Niall’s smile falters a little, but it’s still there. “Wasn’t trying to.”

“Oh.” Shawn then pats Niall’s knee and directs their attention back to their work. 

–

That’s as close as they come to talking about it, but Niall doesn’t stop. He doesn’t stop flirting, he doesn’t stop calling Shawn out when he is on the verge of making a move, and he certainly doesn’t stop laughing about it. He never pushes the matter, though. Over the next few weeks, it becomes clear that Niall has at least a hunch of what Shawn feels for him and that there is a thick tension between them. And the fact that they are still flirty, makes Shawn think that maybe, just maybe, Niall feels it too.

They start texting a lot more than they used to, and suddenly Shawn finds himself up at two in the morning, still texting Niall, and refusing to go to sleep because of it. He supposes that that’s just how his life is going to be from now on.

–

It’s four weeks after the initial song-writing session, and the song is almost finished. They work until very late to get it right, and suddenly it’s past midnight and Niall is obviously very sleepy. Shawn eyes him carefully, not sure how to say what he wants to say. Niall yawns and his eyes droop a little further, so Shawn just bursts.

“Stay over, Ni.”

“What,” Niall asks with his eyes closed, “would be the benefit of that?”

“You not crashing your car on your way home,” Shawn says with a giggle. “You’re sleepy as fuck and I won’t let you drive like that.”

“And if I stay over, Shawnie,” Niall says with a soft smile, “where would I sleep, then?”

Shawn is glad that Niall’s eyes are closed, because he blushes at the realisation that he has no guest room prepared.

“I can make a bed for you, hang on, I’ll go...”

Niall interrupts him. “It’s fine. I can sleep on the sofa.”

“I want you to sleep in a bed, Niall. You’re so weird sometimes.”

“Well, how about your bed, then?” Niall says with a shit-eating grin, opening one eye fully to peek at him.

Shawn inwardly sighs at his fate. “Of course. My bed. Of fucking course,” he whispers, a little too loud, judging by Niall’s laugh.

“It’s fine, really, Shawnie. I can call a taxi. Don’t worry so much.”

He whips out his phone and is already calling, before Shawn can protest. Within fifteen minutes, Niall is gone.

Fuck. He would have loved to have Niall stay over. Maybe another time, then? If only he knew why Niall would suggest something like that and then not follow through. Could it be, just maybe, that Niall was as nervous about this thing between them as he was?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're enjoying this story.  
> Find me on tumblr @laratjuhh if you want.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, more soon!  
> Find me on Tumblr if you want @laratjuhh.


End file.
